Pruitt’s EPA Trashing Benefit-Cost Analysis Of Environmental Policy

Scott Pruitt increasingly looks the worst of the worst out of the appalling cabinet of President Trump, quite aside from his race to become the single most corrupt cabinet member in the entire history ofthe US. The latter is trivial compared to his policy change after policy change that will increase pollution in the environment and end up killing people, to be blunt about it. But now the Environmental Economics blog reports that since June 7 Pruitt’s EPA has been planning to distort benefit-cost in a way to make it less likely to support environmental policy enforcement (sorry not able to make link to site work).

In particular they are planning to eliminate counting “co-benefits” of policies. Only what a policy is specifically directed at can be counted. So, if one looks at coal burning and wishes to limit particulate emissions, then one cannot count co-benefits such as reducing SO2 and mercury emission. This is simply outrageous and makes no sense whatsoever. But indeed, Scott Pruitt may be the worst cabinet member in US history, and Trump seems to be in no hurry to remove him, indeed, defends him.

Comments (6)

Terry

July 4, 2018 10:03 am

Well there really is no benefit in burning coal other than to support coal mining. Natural gas is cheaper and as electrical storage improves, we will keep moving more toward wind, solar and hydro. Pruitt’s EPA is the equivalent of the government requiring auto makers in the 1920’s to include buggy whips with every new automobile sold and not allow a used car to be sold without replacement of the buggy whip. This entire administration is devoted to economic ideas which have been cast on the dung heap of history, but our con man in chief has a loyal following who like his racism and anti liberalism and are willing to sacrifice their own well being and their children and grand children’s well being to satisfy some psychic need to blame others ( black people, brown people, muslims, jews, atheists, “liberals” socialists, environmentalists, feminists, Democrats, etc) for their unsatisfactory lives.

EMichael

July 4, 2018 11:36 am

More importantly, Pruitt can fire Mueller. That’s why he is still there. And I believe strongly that is what will happen.

“So why is Pruitt still there? He has one source of unique value: He could help Trump quash the Mueller investigation. And that, according to a new report, is Pruitt’s own plan, too.

Trump’s biggest impediment is Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has infuriated Trump by failing to prosecute Trump’s enemies and, especially, by recusing himself from the Russia investigation. Trump would love to fire Sessions, but would never be able to get Senate confirmation for the kind of lickspittle he wants in the role.

The straightest shot he has is by using something called the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. This 1998 law allows Trump to fill a vacated Cabinet position with any person who has been confirmed by the Senate for another position. So, if Sessions were to leave — how he leaves could matter a lot, but put that aside for the moment — Trump could install, say, Pruitt in his place, since the Senate already confirmed Pruitt for EPA administrator. And Pruitt could serve for up to 210 days without Senate confirmation — long enough to fire Mueller and all his staff, or at least seriously derail their work.
If Trump wants to use the Vacancies Act maneuver, he could pick any Senate-confirmed figure in his administration. But Pruitt is in some ways the ideal candidate. He’s a lawyer, deeply loyal to Trump, and, most importantly, is not hung up on following ethical rules or norms. Pruitt’s ability to withstand constant revelations of unethical and/or illegal behavior is a strong sign of his willingness to carry out Trump’s wildly unethical goal of turning the Justice Department into his personal rent-a-cops.”